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A wintergreen container can give your home much needed splashes of color this winter. Heidi Heiland, from Heidi's Lifestyle Gardens, gives us some tips on how to build your own. Start with spruce tips You can buy cuttings of spruce trees from your local nursery. Heidi says you'll want to make sure they're responsibly harvested, locally grown from Minnesota or even from Canada. She says some spruce tips are cut inappropriately from woodlands and wetlands and you should avoid those. Pick the right planter There are a myriad of options for planters. Plastic would hold up the best in our Minnesota winters. If you want to use a glazed ceramic container, keep in mind it could crack in the cold. You'll want to put a liner in it and that is what will be filled with soil and will take the freeze and thaw. You might want to put some packing peanuts between the container and the liner to give the liner a boost. Add fresh materials Some things people might not consider for their spruce tip arrangements include rose hips, magnolia leaves and oregonia. They last just as long in the season as spruce and can survive the frost. Choose from a variety of dried materials Nurseries or craft stores sell dried materials that can add natural tones, a little bit of glitz or some serious height to your arrangement. But you don't have to go to the store to get dried materials. You can cut things from your backyard, like seed pods, and spruce them up by spray painting them silver or gold or red or burgundy. Remember when creating your container, build up and out for the most dramatic effect. You can keep your arrangement clean and simple or go all out with plenty of fresh and dried decor, lights and garland. It will probably cost you about $50 to make a small to mid-sized planter. Taller, fuller planters will cost a bit more. But, the good thing is, wintergreens last about five months. So they should take you through the winter and right up to spring. Heidi will have more suggestions at her Wintergreens Workshop and Holiday Horticulture Healing Event on Friday, Nov. 16, and Saturday, Nov. 17, at her shop in Corcoran. You'll have a chance to create your own wintergreens container, wreaths, centerpieces or bows. She will also infuse horitcultural therapy into these sessions. The workshop fee is $20. You can call 763-475-4960 or write to info@BloomOnMN.com to reserve a spot. Renee Banot http://twelve.tv/ http://www.facebook.com/12localnews http://twitter.com/12LocalNews 12 News is on Comcast cable channel 12 in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis and includes the cities Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Crystal, Golden Valley, Maple Grove, New Hope, Osseo, Plymouth and Robbinsdale.